NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Shabazz Muhammad Sets Decision Date

Despite the emergence and reclassification of New England big-man Nerlens Noel, a very strong argument can still be made that Shabazz Muhammed of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas is the best high school player in the country in the class of 2012.

He also, like Noel, has still yet to commit to a college program for the upcoming 2012-13 season.

According to his high school coach, Grant Rice, Muhammad will decide his college fate on April 10th, the day before national signing day, on which Muhammad is slated to leave to play in the Jordan classic and thus will not have time to make an announcement.

The final five schools that Muhammad has had his list narrowed down to for a while–Duke, UNLV, Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA–will all be anxiously awaiting his decision. Most scouts believe that his skill- set is good enough to be a potential number one pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, and his services will benefit the team he selects tremendously.

If any of the five schools appears to be the front runner for the 6'5" athletic winger, it is UCLA, where he would be playing with fellow blue-chip recruit Kyle Anderson of St. Anthony's in New Jersey. Anderson's father has recently told Adam Zagoria of Zag's Blog that he believes UCLA to be the front-runner because that's where his parents are originally from.

This past season, Muhammad, whose game has been compared to Kobe Bryant, averaged 30 points a game while leading Nevada's Bishop Gorman to the state championship..